In a disturbing new case from the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) this week, Matter of Fitzpatrick, 26 I&N Dec. 559 (BIA 2015), the BIA held that a foreign national was removable (deportable) for having voted in a federal election regardless of the foreign national's lack of knowledge that she was committing an unlawful act by voting when not a US citizen. In this case, Ms. Fitzpatrick is a native and citizen of Peru who became a permanent resident in 2004. In 2005, she applied for an … [Read more...]
I had the pleasure to volunteer my time and service at the Citizenship Day event in Yakima, Washington where I helped permanent residents review their eligibility and prepare forms for naturalization applications. Started by an American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) colleague back in 2004 or so, the program has become a national one in many AILA chapters. Around 2009 or 2010, I had the good fortune as chair of the AILA Washington Citizenship Day Committee to form a partnership with … [Read more...]
USCIS announced today that it received a whopping 233,000 H-1B visa petitions during the seven-day filing period that began April 1, 2015! These are for "specialty occupations" that will be effective in the NEXT fiscal year (FY2016) beginning October 1, 2015. Because there were only 65,000 general category visas available plus an additional 20,000 for the advanced degree cap, that means there were more than two and a half times the number of applicants than visas that are available. USCIS just … [Read more...]
I am pleased to announce that on March 3, 2015, I will be participating in a national webinar hosted by the American Immigration Lawyers Association on "Immigrant Options for Small and Start-Up Businesses." This program will focus on the unique challenges faced by foreign personnel working for small businesses, or founding start-up companies. We will discuss various permanent residence options, ability to pay, bona fide job opportunities, capitalization, business plans, and best practices for … [Read more...]
Recently, USCIS held an interactive engagement session with stakeholders on the issue of proving lawful source of funds for EB-5 Entrepreneur Investor applicants. The following is from my notes from the meeting. The most common Requests for Evidence or “RFEs” in EB-5 investor cases involve insufficient proof of the legal source of funds used to invest in commercial enterprises or regional centers. Proof of the required job creation is another frequent RFE issue. However, this conference focused … [Read more...]
USCIS has released updated adjudications data for the EB-5 investor entrepreneur program. This is the "$500k or million dollar club" investor visa for permanent residence. The EB-5 program is modeled after marriage based immigration that requires a two-step process to permanent residence. The first application is called the Immigrant Petition for Alien Entrepreneur, filed on Form I-526. If approved, the applicant receives a conditional residence card valid for two years. Within the 90-day … [Read more...]
On February 15, 2015, the US State Department issued a cable announcing that starting March 1, 2015, medical exam results will only be valid for six months, or three months depending upon exam results for tuberculosis (TB) or HIV. These changes actually come from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), which regulates immigrants' medical exams. Previously, medical exams were good for up to a year for non-TB results. This means applicants for immigrant visas are going to need repeated medical … [Read more...]
Today, U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas temporarily blocked two of President Obama's Executive Action programs, the expanded DACA program (or DACA II), and the DAPA program. DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, has been in effect since 2012. But the new expanded version of that program due to begin on February 18, 2015 has been halted by the temporary injunction order in Texas v. United States. The Deferred Action for Parent Accountability (DAPA) program … [Read more...]